Thursday, March 15, 2018

"Remote operation" of driverless cars won't kick in very fast, whatever the fantasy, so if they're needed it means you've got a 2 ton brick sitting in the middle of the road waiting for someone to take over.

A car in need of help would automatically contact a Phantom Auto center, where a remote operator could use the car’s cameras and sensors to see what was happening, then maneuver the vehicle out of trouble. The technology prefigures a time when most passengers wouldn’t be able to take control for the simple reason that they won’t know how to drive a car — or because the steering wheel and pedals have been removed.

This won't work at all in sudden high speed situations. It's more like "uh, there's a big object [stalled truck?]" in the way and I don't know what to do so I'll just sit here until the mothership takes over."

These things will not be popular with other drivers. Probably better do away with them!